Samsung’s ‘3D Emoji’ Rumored to Be ‘More Advanced’ Than Animoji

So far, we’ve heard and seen just about everything we need to know about Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9+ — from their leaked specifications and rumored features, to the more recent, full-on front and back images flaunting its slightly modified design.

One of the latest reports on the S9 duo revealed that Samsung may have abandoned its earlier plans to incorporate a 3D camera sensor (a la Apple’s TrueDepth) on its upcoming Galaxy devices. However a newer report published this morning by Korea’s ETNews has boldly asserted otherwise. It claims that Samsung’s S9 and S9+ will in fact boast a new “3D emoji function” even “more advanced” than Apple’s TrueDepth camera, the publication reports.

Samsung’s feature will reportedly allow users to place a variety of 3D characters, including animals, over their natural face to “mimic facial movements as tracked by the Galaxy S9’s facial recognition sensors” MacRumors noted.

Much like Apple’s Animoji feature powered by iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera, Samsung’s 3D emoji feature will be powered by the Galaxy S9’s new facial recognition system — however said system is not expected to be as secure as Face ID is on the iPhone X.

Sadly, today’s report lacks additional details about Samsung’s 3D emoji feature, including what it will be called and/or any other noteworthy functions it’ll be capable of performing so we’ll just have to wait until the company unveils its S9 duo to find out more.

Just speculating based on what we’ve seen of the Galaxy S9 so far though, it’s not entirely clear how Samsung’s feature could (in any meaningful way) be “more advanced” than Animoji.

Not only is Apple’s TrueDepth camera years ahead of any competition in terms of its 3D imaging and biometric security capabilities, but the Galaxy S9’s design, relative to the Galaxy S8 and S8+ from last year, makes it even harder to fathom anything “groundbreaking” was incorporated. The devices literally look identical..

And considering the fact that Samsung is expected to keep its iris scanner onboard the Galaxy S9 as well, it’s downright difficult to imagine how whatever the company came up with this quickly is going to be “better” than what Apple spent the last several years (and hundreds of millions of R&D dollars) developing from the ground up. But only time will tell, right?

Samsung will be taking the wraps off its Galaxy S9 and S9+ flagships on February 25, and they’re expected to hit store shelves on or around March 16.